A GREEK court’s decision to acquit local farmers who admitted shooting 28 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers when they dared to ask for months of back pay has sparked outrage in the country, reported an international daily. Politicians, unionists and anti-racist groups roundly condemned the verdict describing it as a black mark for justice in a case that had shone a light on the appalling conditions in which migrant workers are often kept in Greece.
“I feel shame as a Greek,” said the victim’s lawyer, Moisis Karabeyidis, after the tribunal in the western port city of Patras, delivered the shock ruling. “This decision is an outrage and a disgrace … the court showed an appalling attitude toward the victims.”
Scores of migrants, many sobbing in disbelief, protested outside the court house after magistrates allowed two of the men, including the owner of the farm who had been accused of human trafficking, to walk free. Two others, accused of aggravated assault and illegal firearms possession, were handed prison sentences of 14 years and seven months and eight years and seven months but were also freed pending appeal.
The Bangladeshis were shot at in April last year when they demanded to be remunerated for six months of unpaid work at a farm in Manolada in the southern Peloponnese. Four of the strawberry pickers were badly injured in the attack.
At a time of unrivalled crisis in Greece, where living standards have deteriorated dramatically after six straight years of recession, the case had triggered widespread indignation. Media investigations showed the migrants to be working in subhuman conditions without access to proper hygiene or basic sanitation. Politicians who took up the cause also weighed in on Wednesday saying the verdict set an unwelcome example for other employers to follow.
“It sends the message that a foreign worker can die like a dog in the orchard,” said Vassiliki Katrivanou, an MP with the main opposition radical-left Syriza party. She added that in a nation where fruit-farm labourers are frequently from overseas, the attack in Manolada was far from being an isolated incident.
It is a tragedy when courts of other countries which are supposed to uphold the rule of law instead don’t follow the most basic conventions regarding human rights. Greece is still part of the EU and is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 4 of the convention prohibits slavery, servitude and forced labour. Yet the Greek court has ruled against our poor and helpless countrymen whose only crime was to have gone to Greece illegally to look for legitimate and honest work. It is a genuine tragedy which must be looked into.
Our Foreign Ministry is proving like the government isolated and too weak politically to be effective diplomatically. Foreign Ministry does not have the will or capacity to carry influence for helping Bangladeshis suffering injustices. Our government is interested in the money our workers earn through hard labour and send to Bangladesh without much help from their government. We need leadership qualities to be helpful to our workers abroad. Only to remain in power with the help of corrupt and unelected ones cannot be worth its existence. Yet we shall urge the Foreign Ministry to be on the side of citizens in Greece and file appeal against the judgement to secure justice.
